Over the past couple of years we've seen the conflicting ideas of Japan and the west result in some changes during the localization process of games, usually to reflect the western world's more restrained view of sexuality. However Japan and the West have almost the complete opposite views of violence. Violence is seen as much more acceptable to represent in American culture. Japan has a much more tame view of violence. Usually these attitudes are reflected in different colored blood in Japanese games or the removal of gore systems from western titles making their way to Japan but in a rare role reversal the western version of the recently announced Nioh will be getting a feature that will be removed from the Japanese version. Dismemberment.
The game was announced as Team Ninja's next project ten days ago along with a trailer. It's obviously taking some heavy cues from Dark Souls in terms of the weight and mechanics of the combat system (The trailer even includes the tagline READY TO DIE?) but with more of a feudal Japanese influence on the art and aesthetics. Dark Souls has never been particularly gory, but Team Ninja's prior work with the Ninja Gaiden series set a precedent for brutal gore. Pluggnplay posted a screenshot of a comment on the trailer where a fan asked for them to add dismemberment, to which they responded "it will have it for the west."
Nioh will be exclusive to the Playstation 4 and will have an alpha demo running from April 26th to May 5th so you can check it out yourself and see if the gore is worth all the fuss. If you complete the demo you get a free piece of DLC when the game launches. Team Ninja have confirmed that the game will be released in 2016 but haven't locked in a firm date yet.
What do you think of Nioh getting dismemberment in the west? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
